Daily Times

Sir: The President of Pakistan, or that of any other country in the world, is regarded as the First Citizen of that particular country, and his wife in turn is known as the First Lady. But due to ignorance or some other unknown factors, Begum Kalsoom Nawaz was constantly described by the print and electronic media as the First Lady when her husband Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister.

Now, the PTI Chairman Imran Khan has just taken oath as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan and the print and electronic media has started describing his wife, Bushra Bibi, as the First Lady. This is a grave misnomer and nothing else. Bushra Bibi is the wife of Prime Minister Imran Khan who as the Chief Executive of the land, enjoys more powers than anyone else and calling her the First Lady is wrong and a grave misnomer.

Print and electronic media people should firstly ensure to do their homework first before embarking on any such important assignment to avoid such misnomers of calling the wife of the Prime Minister the First Lady, which she is not as per the protocol and Warrants of Precedence. How many of the media people had gone through the protocol and the Warrants of Precedence prior to proceeding to cover the election of the new Prime Minister by the National Assembly and the oath taking by the newly-elected Prime Minister of Pakistan ?

Media people should first educate themselves with regard to any matter and situation, in order to avoid any misnomer which has been cited above to avoid any embarrassment and being dubbed as the ignorant ones, instead of the well-informed people that they are supposed to be.

MIH KHAN

Lahore

Published in Daily Times, August 19^th 2018.